Ninja Rebar Shuriken With Leg Sheath - Maker Collab Pt.1

About: Hi I'm Alex and I love to make stuff! I mainly work with different metals but I also love to explore new (to me) materials and dabble in woodworking, jewelry, knife making, design and many more.
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Hi Instructables Community,

After a longer hiatus and a complete re-branding of my channel I would like to restart my Instructables as well as YouTube videos.

For this re-start my friend The Redsmith agreed to a collaboration project. We decided that we should try to follow up on one of my YouTube projects the "Ninja Rebar Shuriken" but increase the amount of steel darts to ten and add a leather sheath for them to be carried on your leg.

This part will focus on the manufacturing of the Shuriken whilst the second part is all about the leather sheath so don't forget to check that out too.

Cheers

Alex

Supplies:

Step 1: Cutting and Rough-shaping

Since in this project I created a whole bunch of shuriken at the same time it was out of the question to use the same basic hand tools I used in the original build.

The basic material was again simple re-bar I had left over from a construction project. I used an angle grinder with a 2mm cut-off wheel which went through the steel like a hot knife through butter.

I also used the same grinder and wheel to cut off some material from the tip with the intention to save some time later on the bench grinder. (Looking back I could have skipped this since the bench grinder was hogging off material like crazy)

Step 2: Shaping

For the rough and fine shaping I used two different bench grinders. The large blue one was used to create the rough shape which is triangular at the tip and has two flat faces at the other end.

To avoid excessive heating I cooled the spikes during the entire time with water. The angles at the time where ground freehand with satisfactory results although looking back now I think that a jig would have help with consistent results.

The smaller grinder has less power and finer grinding wheels which is why I was able to use it to refine the shape and remove some of the tool marks from the larger grinder. Repeated breaks for cooling where required here too though.

Step 3: Drilling

Since I didn't have a drill press at the time all I could use was my cordless drill a few HSS drills and WD40 (Not the best choice but better than nothing to keep the drills cool).

I marked the spot where I intended the hole to be with a center punch and followed this up with a 3mm pilot hole. For the final hole a 6mm drill was used which worked quite ok. In the end I removed the burrs with a countersink although you could use a larger diameter drill bit or deburring tool.

Step 4: Deburring & Polishing

For this final step in the metal working department I used a simple metal file and wet stone to remove any remaining burrs from the faces of the tip and create a very rough polish that should be a good match for the material I used. Not much to add here other than to regularly clean the file with a file card or stiff brush to maintain good results.

I strongly suggest you give the shuriken a light coating of oil to prevent rust.

Step 5: Attaching the Flights

Ok for this last step I used simple paracord and cut off a length that was about four times as long as I wanted the flights to be.

First I removed the inner strands from the paracord and folded it in half. I then used another single inner strand to thread the bundle halfway through the hole I've drilled through the end of the Shuriken. With the strands inside of the hole I used a small clamp to keep the strand together and twisted them a few times. Close to the spike I used some strong leather sewing thread as a "whipping". Starting with a constrictor knot I wrapped a few wraps of thread around the strands and finished it off with another constrictor knot. This should be a relatively reliable method to hold the strands together although you could also use other methods to whip the strands together.

Last but not least I used scissors to trim the strands in order to have them all the same length.

Step 6: How to Use?

The way to use these single is a little more difficult than spikes with two tips. Most people might try to throw them with a twist but that wont work that well. What worked best for me was to hold the shuriken with my index & middle fingers as well as the thumb. The throw is then done with a thrusting motion towards your target releasing the shuriken with the thumb. This might require a little practice but you will soon be able to impress your friends.

This project is thought only for target practice please make sure you do not aim at people or animals.

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4 Discussions

This is a really cool instructable! I am a fan of throwing knives so naturally I had to check it out. Small hiccup, you might want to look at kunai. It's a throwing knife, while a shuriken is a throwing star (aka ninja star). Since these aren't knives, they'd actually be closer to dart, which is how you described throwing them. Hope this helps!

thanks for your feedback. These throwing darts would be correctly called Bo Shuriken. The shuriken you refer to are called hira-shuriken or shaken.

Kunai however is a specific term for a tool that was used by farmers and carpenters and was unconspicous for the ninja to carry. Modern kunai are usually throwing knives that have the general shape off the original.